Assembly Bill 217 held a public hearing yesterday. The bill passed in the assembly last October and is now in the senate. Currently, it is illegal to impersonate a "peace officer." This bill makes it also illegal to impersonate a fire fighter or an emergency medical technician.

The good thing is, the bill is very short. The bad thing is, it is actually too short. While trying to trick people into believing you are someone you are not should be punishable as fraud, this bill simply states "whoever impersonates a fire fighter with intent to mislead others into believing that the person is actually a fire fighter is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor." Therefore, a good neighbor trying to put out a fire could technically be a criminal under this vague wording, because "fire fighter" is not defined any further to my knowledge. This results in LESS LIBERTY.